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What happens after a member has opted out?

When a member opts out we’ll send them a letter to confirm their request has been processed successfully. This confirmation is sent either by post or by email depending on the member’s preference.

You can stop deducting contributions from the member once you’ve received your opt-out notification from us. Any contributions you’ve deducted from the member’s wages must be given back to the member.

If you sent any contributions to us, they’ll be refunded within 10 working days and you must return the money to the member. We’ll send a message to your secure mailbox which will have a breakdown of any refunds to help you reconcile your payments. Please see How will I receive refunds for members who’ve opted out? for more information on opt-out refunds.

The member will move to your ‘Inactive workers ’ list in the Manage workers section of your NEST online account. They may still appear on schedules with a status of Not-eligible-opted out. We won’t expect any contributions for them though.

Every three years you’ll need to re-enrol any workers who are eligible for auto enrolment but aren’t in a qualifying scheme.

This includes workers who’ve previously opted out, provided they haven’t opted out within 12 months of your re-enrolment date.

Your first re-enrolment date is set as three years from your staging date. However, you’ll have the flexibility to choose any date either three months before or after that date to fit around your normal processes. You can find more information about this in What date should I use to re-enrol my workers?